Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: It's good to see you this morning. My name is Craig Jarvis. I am the lead pastor here at Village Church East. And if I haven't met you yet, I want to say welcome. It's good to have you with us this morning.
Yeah. You're here on a good day. This is our first grand opening, official day. We had a soft launch. We were open for Easter, and so we've kind of made our way and made this place comfortable for us so far. But this is our official first day. So you're here on a very special day.
The Lord has given us this place, and we're going to be talking about that this morning and why we are here and why we do what we do. And so we're going to talk about that. And I have a lot that I want to cover with you. So I have some slides of how this looked before and how it metamorphosized into what you see now. So you'll get to see that this morning. I have a couple of stories I want to tell you about a couple of people that are very special to us that are here as well that made all this happen. This was done by our church.
This is the result of many hands working together, of people here at this church, this local church, but also people in our community that have stepped out and helped us in different ways to make this possible. So I just want to say a big thank you for all of you. This is a great moment for us. It's a next step for us. No more setup. Tear down for a while. Isn't that nice?
The people clapping right now are the people who have set up and tear down this church for the last eight years. And we wouldn't be here were it not for them. And so that faithfulness has given birth to this morning, and we're very excited about that. I want to tell you about a study that I did recently in Nehemiah. Nehemiah has kind of captured me again. I studied this actually in the past, and the story of Nehemiah in the Old Testament is full of. Of really rich tones and stories that we can benefit from today. We did a study starting back in January on Nehemiah, and one verse that kind of leapt off the pages to me as we revisited the story of Nehemiah, was the one that you saw when you came in the door, if you came in the door back there, there was a sign on the wall. And that verse is from Nehemiah. And let me tell you what it says in case you missed it. Nehemiah 2, verse 18. One of my favorite verses in Nehemiah, it's on the screen. And I told them of the hand.
I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good and also of the words that the king had spoken to me. And they said, let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for the good work.
Let me tell you what happens in Nehemiah. If you're not familiar with this guy in the Old Testament, I mean, who would be if, unless you actually study this story in the Old Testament, Nehemiah actually, when he finally gets to like the climactic moment, it's in the sixth chapter of Nehemiah. However, Nehemiah actually has 13 chapters. And so it's kind of interesting to me that Nehemiah has accomplished, it seems like the project that he was working on, which I'm going to tell you about in a minute in the first six chapters, but. But then there's like seven more chapters to the book.
Nehemiah was a cupbearer to the king. If you watched the 300. Have you watched the 300? Don't admit it if you have, but if you've seen that movie, that was about the same time that Nehemiah existed. Nehemiah worked for a king. He was a Persian king and he was a very not nice individual. Name was Xerxes.
Xerxes, as.
As was in this day, was a ruthless king. Nehemiah was a servant. He was actually a slave. He was captured by Babylon along with the rest of the Jewish people. And they were taken to Babylonia in captivity. These people. This is where you've heard of the story of Daniel in the lion's den. You remember that story, Daniel, that's at the same time he got taken as a captive by the Babylonians, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. All of those stories are from this time period when he gets taken into captivity. They're actually in captivity for a long, long time. Nehemiah is likely born into captivity in Babylon. Now, Babylon was a terrible place. Nebuchadnezzar was one of the kings that was very popular there.
And Babylon fell to the Persian empire. The Persian empire came in very, very strategically under the walls of the Babylonian empire, under Babylonia. And they took over the.
The Babylon Empire. They ruled what was then the world at the time.
These Persian kings were ruthless, but they were different in that they liked to let the people that were there in Babylon, instead of all being servants, they sent them back to the places they captured them from and got them to rule there so that they could get income and send it back to Persia, what used to be Babylon.
So Nehemiah, we find him to be a cupbearer to the king.
Now, this sounds like a good job because you're right next to the king. But being a cupbearer to the king is a kind of dangerous job. Do you know what a cupbearer does for a king?
Yeah. The king goes, this doesn't look right. Here, taste this.
And especially if the king goes, this looks poisoned. Can you see if it is?
So that's what Nehemiah did. Nehemiah was a cup bearer, was a taste tester for the king. And so Nehemiah had the ear of the king, but he was still a slave.
He had to have a good face on at all times, had to have a positive attitude. And in his dealings with the king, he found out that all the people that had gone back to Israel, back to what we know as Jerusalem, that area at the time that were sent back by the Persian king to work and send revenue back, they had gone back there and everything was devastated.
The place was. The Babylonians had knocked down everything. They had even salted the earth so nothing would grow for years and years. And so all these people came back and they have nothing. And so they're just trying to survive. They're not in captivity anymore, but they are trying to survive. And they have a very hard time. Nehemiah hears about what's happening and it crushes his spirit. This is where we walk into Nehemiah. He, in the first chapter, there's three things that he feels terrible about. He feels terrible that his people who have gone back to Israel are discouraged.
They've been discouraged because they had heard stories about how beautiful Israel was, how beautiful Jerusalem was, and now it was devastation. They had a defeated spirit. They couldn't rebuild. They didn't have the resources. They didn't have the money. They were barely surviving. They were like.
They were like rats trying to survive in a desolate land. And they had a damaged land. They couldn't bring this thing back to life.
So Nehemiah is crushed in his spirit, and he feels terrible about this. So he goes before the king, sad, not good. But he goes before the king, sad. And the king says, what's on your heart?
And God moves in amazing ways. And so Nehemiah says, I have to go back and help my people rebuild. And this is the theme of Nehemiah. He goes back to rebuild the walls when he gets back to rally the troops, they're defeated, they're crushed. And he has to say, come on, guys, we can do this. And it's a tough speech, but in his speech, what you see hanging on our wall in the back is one of the things that he said, let us rise up and build. You can do this. There were obstacles. There were people at the time that were. That were attacking them. They didn't want them to rebuild. There was emotional distress. There was physical dangers. They had to build with one hand and carry a weapon with the other hand because they were constantly being attacked. It was a very difficult time. But Nehemiah led them and they built a wall which allowed them to now have security and they could rebuild their towns with some security around them. So he pitches this vision, they catch it, and they build the wall. In how long did it take them to build the wall, do you remember?
52 days.
That's the first six chapters. But in the last seven chapters, it's kind of interesting to me. The majority of the book is not about building the wall. The majority of the book is about building the people.
It's about coming back to the people and saying, okay, we've got the wall, we've got our foundations, we've got the bones, but what kind of a people are we going to be now? What are we going to do with what God has allowed us to accomplish?
And so for the last seven chapters, he says things like, remember your roots. Captivity has stolen so much from us. Don't let it steal our DNA. Begin institutions of feasts and festivals that made us the Jewish people.
And he encouraged them to become the people that God has called them to be all the way back from Abraham, 1500 years before Nehemiah, because all they knew was life in captivity. All they knew was life as Persians. A lot of them didn't even remember how to speak Hebrew.
Nehemiah stands up and he says, listen, you've always been these people. Don't let anyone take that away from you. Don't forget your roots.
And we have the same vision we had 1500 years ago. God has called us to be the Jewish people. Let's rise up and be those people. And he begins to institute all of the things that Abraham was given 1500 years earlier that made this people distinct.
He said, let us rise up. Let this success be the beginning of what God wants to make you into, into the people that God wants you to be.
Village Church east began eight years ago. Eight years and several months ago.
It's never been about a building.
It's never been about a nice facility.
It's never been about a large facility.
The building or wherever Village Church meets has always been a stepping stone to be the people God has called us to be.
It's always been about serving people. It's always been about serving each other. It's always been about serving the community that God put us into.
I want you to know if you're new here, you should know that at Village Church East, 92% of our congregation is involved in some kind of service ministry throughout the entire throughout week by week by week.
We have a history wall back there that you'll see on your way in and out that kind of shows some of the pictures of how we have served the community, how we have served each other, how we have served families. This is who God has called Village Church east to be.
It's how we began and it's how we want to continue to this day. And in case you're not familiar with that, then I have a little video here of our beginnings. I want you to take a look at this.
[00:11:05] Speaker B: Village Church east officially began with a group of people meeting for weekly Bible study and hungry to be used for the Lord.
Meanwhile, an already established congregation at Village Church of Barlett had been experiencing prolonged season of growth and God's blessing. Little did they know how God was preparing them for more.
The Bartlett Church family was anxious to see what God could do if they thought out of the box. Leadership began contemplating the idea of starting a new church. The idea of planning a new church was a stretch and a huge step of faith for this 40 year old congregation. Yet they were anxious to continue the work of what Jesus was doing building his church in the northwest Chicago suburbs.
[00:11:43] Speaker C: In the spring of 2016, Pastor Feueling and the Village Church elders began meeting with the Bible study group in order to discuss and pray over the possibilities of joining together in ministry and expanding the kingdom impact of Village Church.
After a great deal of prayer, a vision for a new church began to be formed. The vision was to grow two congregations that would function as one church in 2000.
[00:12:07] Speaker B: In November of 2016, a group of believers led by Pastor Craig Jarvis began meeting on Saturday nights to worship in room 601 at the Bartlett campus. Immediately, plans began for moving this congregation to a more independent location. This group of believers prayed diligently for a new location for their new church.
In December 2016, this group of worshipers believed God was calling them to move east. They secured a temporary location and began planning to begin Sunday worship meetings at Fountain View Recreational center in Carroll Street.
[00:12:38] Speaker C: Believing in the urgency of the Lord's call, they adopted the name Village Church East. A trailer was purchased to house the equipment needed for the weekly Sunday worship service.
Village Church east would begin as a set up tear down church at the rec center in Carroll Stream.
[00:12:53] Speaker B: Loading crews would start each Sunday at 7am by setting up four rooms and a kitchen at Fountain View. These rooms would be used for nursery, village kids and a worship center.
A soft launch took place over several Sundays in February 2017 and on February 26, 2017, Village Church east officially began with 128 in attendance.
[00:13:24] Speaker C: Village Church east exists to go row and overcome.
Our church has become a place of service for anyone willing to help. Our church offers hope for the lost and healing for the hurting. Every person has a place to belong and every individual has a space to use their gifts.
Our mission extends beyond our congregation and into the village of Carroll Stream.
Our prayer is that God continues to use us to build godly homes and communities.
[00:13:52] Speaker B: While the journey of Village Church east is still in the making, our dedication to the vision is still the same.
Our dream is that through our church God would establish his presence and minister healing and offer grace to whoever comes through our doors.
We follow his lead and look to our future with great expectation no matter where he takes us. From here to God be all the glory.
[00:14:20] Speaker A: Let me read for you the verse one more time. And this is Nehemiah 2:18.
This is Nehemiah rallying the troops and telling them.
By the way, some of those pictures are kind of old.
Remember that Chris had hair.
Nehemiah 2:18. Here's what it says. And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words the king had spoken to me and they said, let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for the good work.
I have held weak hands in my lifetime.
I'm sure you have as well. Being a pastor, often I'll be at the bedside of somebody with very weak hands. Folks that have once swung heavy farm instruments or used hands to do incredible things now had very weak hands, unable to even clutch things on their own. People who have been through a tragedy in life with emotionally weak hands, emotionally people broken that I've met, that I've held hands with to pray. It's interesting how life makes our hands weak at times.
And over the last years, eight years, God has been strengthening our hands as a church to build a faith deeper in us and to see Some of that come to fruition over the years as God has worked through us. Most people would take out a loan to do a project like this. Our church did not. Our church rose up to the vision that was cast and believed in what God could do. And so we have been funding this as we go. It started with faith, and so we've been paying the bills as we've been going along.
This is a sacrifice of love because God has been strengthening our hands together to build it and also to fund it together.
And by the way, if you'd like to jump in and help us fund this, there's still bills coming in.
So you can do that online if you would like to do that today.
God has been not only helping us by giving us hands to give, but also growing us stronger together through adversity. This church survived Covid at a church our size sometimes didn't survive Covid. He's taught us to be flexible, to grow through adversity. He's helped us to unify around the truth of God in an ever changing world. We stick. If you come here, you'll see us. And we use scripture from every Sunday all through the year. You will just kind of walk through scripture with us because we believe that even though culture changes and even though our world changes, God's word never does. And so we stand firm on God's word. All of this has strengthened our ability to serve God even better. It has strengthened our hands together to do more for what God has called us to do. And he has added hands to the work through, through the years. A lot of you folks weren't here way back eight years ago. Some have moved on to different places. But some folks came out of the woodwork and even helped with this project in ways that we didn't even expect.
And God has brought people to us, like in the moments that we need them most. I think I've told you the story of Chuck, but Chuck and Kelly, this wonderful couple, actually has started attending our church. And we went out and had lunch together. And Kelly brought up the fact that Chuck had actually flipped houses before or flipped a house before. And we hadn't even thought about, like, where are we going to get the tools to do all of this stuff? Where are we going to get the know how to do all these things? And all of a sudden, God just opened the door. And Chuck has been wonderful in coming in and helping. He's been here almost every single day, just working in this place and making it into what you see today. Kelly has been wonderful Coming in and helping us redo the children's wing. Something that you should see before you go.
But she has done that as well as working out here. And they've been a wonderful couple that God has just brought in to strengthen our hands together.
Another one, the sprinkler system. This was a real big headache for us. This was office space. So we had.
We had actually.
What do you call those drop ceiling in here? We tore all that drop ceiling down, but then we had the sprinkler system hanging down. And so we found out, well, we got to turn the sprinkler system up, and we have a firefighter in our congregation. And he told me that at the very beginning, but I didn't listen to him. And so I wanted to pretend I didn't hear that.
But then we found out, yeah, we have to do that. And so we had the guy come in from the Spot sprinkler company, and I got to talk to him. His name was Mike, Mike and Mark, who worked together. And as they came in and talked to me, Mike said to me, yeah, this is going to be expensive. And I'm going, oh, man, don't tell me that. I don't want to hear how expensive it's going to be. He said, well, listen, let me just tell you, sometimes I'm going from here to a meeting where all of my project managers are going to meet, and my boss is going to be there. And sometimes, sometimes we just like to help the communities that we serve. And so I said, don't tease me, man, if this is a possibility. So he walked out of here, went to that meeting, and they called me and said, yeah, we're going to do this. We're going to do this all pro bono. And so they didn't even charge us for turning this stuff up. So it's amazing. God has just strengthened us to be able to do things like this because he brought people to us to help us make a difference.
There's a couple people from the community that God has brought to us as well. We've developed new relationships through the process that we have done in building this place over the last 40 days. And so I want to acknowledge some of those folks from Chrissy's, you're here this morning. And from the village want to welcome you. They're way in the back, but we are grateful for you. We're grateful for those that helped us with the duct work.
We had an electrician that came in and he helped us out. Lewis and Kelly are here this morning. Lewis and Kelly are right there, and Lewis did all the flooring for us. We're grateful for that.
We're grateful for Nathan and Jonathan. We are leasing this space, and Nathan loves Jesus and he owns this building, and he has been behind us this entire way. We're grateful for both of them and Jonathan who manages things for him. We're grateful for our Fountain View Building background that we've had and the ministry that we've had for eight years there and the support that we've had to build us into the people that God wants us to be. All of this has just kind of strengthened our hands so that we're able to take on bigger projects like this and do it together.
In Isaiah 35. Three, we see this continuing theme of how God loves to strengthen our hands. Look at what this says. Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees. I think that means more than we actually think.
Sometimes it means that God is able to use our weak hands to do more than we think.
But maybe sometimes it means that God brings people beside of us so that they help our hands be stronger.
It doesn't necessarily mean that we get a miracle. So all of a sudden, in our weakness or in our emotional distress, or when we feel weakest, we think to ourselves, God, why aren't you strengthening our hands? Sometimes God strengthens our hands by bringing people beside of us so that we can do more when we serve together.
This community has rallied like few others that I've been involved in.
You need to know, like, even two nights ago, we had a crew here till five in the morning, just working on stuff, making sure it was ready to go for today.
Katie Knapp is another friend. We put out a call to a sister church because we needed final sanding on some of the walls. And if you know anything about drywall, that sanding is a really, like, you need a special touch to do that. And so we put out a call to some of our sister churches, and one of those churches sent over this wonderful lady. Her name is Katie. And she put in so many hours, countless hours mudding and sanding and painting and doing carpet. And she's not even here today. But she just did.
She came over day after day after day and helped us accomplish what you see here today. Annette has been a wonderful blessing. Annette, wherever she is, Annette, when I asked her to help out, I tried to give everybody a special job that they could do. And so I said, annette, what I need you to do is just help me with colors. All right? Just help me with a color. Scheme so we can figure out what color chairs, what color we want on the wall so we can move on from there. And so I asked Annette if she could help with the colors, just get the bones going. But then she wouldn't leave. She just stayed. And she kept on doing job after job and working tirelessly, even missing days at her work, or even doing work in the back in the youth room so that she could be here for all of the jobs that needed to be done. And that has been a blessing.
Darren, you have found a new job, my friend. He has a job, but now he should be a general contractor. Because when I asked him at the beginning, I said, okay, Darren, we need somebody to organize everything. And so Darren said, oh, I'll be glad to do that. Well, it wasn't quite like that. I said, darren, wouldn't you be glad to do that? And Darren said, okay, I'll do it. So Darren has been a wonderful blessing in keeping everything organized. When we work in here, we would stay till late hours, and so we would be starving, and we'd forget, like, oh, wait, it's dinner time. It's lunchtime. And the ladies in the kitchen have been a wonderful blessing. If you know the story of the Old Testament where Elijah goes to this little widow's house in Zarephath, and this lady has no food. And so God gives a miracle through Elijah. And the food never stops. It just always keeps multiplying. That's like the fridge in the kitchen, and you can go see it for yourself. There's always. No, don't do that. There's always food back there. Because the ladies in the kitchen always kept food for us so that we could eat, and we had plenty to drink. Diane, Melissa, you and your team, Lindsay and Tom and her family, they did the verse in the front when you come in, and you see the verse that I'm reading this morning, they etched that out all by hand and they gave that to the church. Helen, you have been a wonderful blessing. Every time.
Every time I would drop something on the floor, I'd think, oh, I gotta clean that up. And then I'd look down and it was cleaned up. She was just constantly going along and cleaning things behind us, Paul Sanarki sprayed the ceiling. You'll see a picture of him in the video. All of the ceiling is black. And he was too. When he finished the job.
We had a welcome desk that you saw when you came in. That welcome desk was donated in the memory of a very good friend of mine, Art Lawrence, one of the Best greeters I've ever met in my life. And so that's just a wonderful blessing as well. The stage that we're standing on, this was done how many times, Mark? Three times?
Yeah, it was done numerous times.
Mark put all this together in his garage over the last month and didn't park his cars in there. So this thing took up his whole garage and then he brought it over here piece by piece and did a wonderful job with the stage. Kathy Grage did our hall of history. Kathy and Joe. So all those pictures that you see on the way out, grateful for them giving us a view of our past.
John Wittenhall, all this beautiful lighting that you see in here, John brought that in and helped install that with Chuck along with Amy.
Gwen is a relentless shopper. You should know, every time I looked online, Gwen bought something else.
So when you see all the beautiful furniture and the seating areas, that's largely Gwen's vision for this church. And she's helped in various different ways as well.
Good servant heart.
Sherry Amato prayed for this place like few people I knew. And she is not able to be with us here in person, but she is with us in spirit and we miss her greatly. This whole church has been involved and I really. I don't like naming specific names because everybody has pitched in and everybody deserves a big thank you. Many of you have spent countless hours here and some of you who couldn't come and help because of various different reasons, you gave generously online so that we could do this. This is not possible without financial support. And so I want to thank you for your giving, whether it's been with your hands physically or with your hands in working a job so that you could send what we need in order to build this out and not be in debt. We are extremely grateful. Nehemiah's speech to the people is our passion today. Listen, God can help you overcome whatever has weakened you in this life.
I constantly think to myself, okay, I've had it.
It's too much, I need a break. And it's at those times that I just pray and I ask God strengthen my hands and whether he does it on his own, like giving me this, the supernatural ability to do a little bit more and to get through what he has put in my path or to put somebody alongside of me to help me do it. I love the fact that God can use any willing hands to do his work.
God can bring people into our lives to make our weak hands strong if you let them. And so Nehemiah 2:18 isn't the end of the story, but it's the beginning of the story.
Your hands may have been discouraged in the past. They may have been tempted to yield under the pressure. But Nehemiah says every hand is important.
Every hand is important.
There's always a project that you can help on together. Did you know when Nehemiah built the walls, he's very careful to tell us who helped out. There wasn't, as far as we know, one person who knew how to build a wall on the team.
There was fathers working with daughters. There were perfume makers. There were elders in the village that were helping out with other people of no name status. There was old and there was young.
Building this wall over 52 days was done by people who were not qualified by the world's standards to build a wall. But what they did was they strengthened each other's hands. They strengthened their hands and they built a wall. And by the way, if you'd like to see part of this wall, it's still stands today in Jerusalem.
This verse is more than just a call to swing hammers. It's a moment when God's people looked together and said, let's do this. We can do this, and we can do this together.
God just doesn't strengthen my hands. He multiplies my ability to do more by allowing me to serve with others around me.
This process has done something in each of us. We're co laborers. We're a family. Planning late nights, Saturday workdays, late nights, putting up the lights, painting ceiling black and realizing you're Where's Waldo? Because nobody can see you anymore, because you blend into the background. We built more than a building.
You've built trust. You've built unity, a deep sense of mission.
And the biggest blessing of all is that the process didn't accomplish the end product.
But the process helped us become better, faithful servants of God. And the mission is still ongoing. Nehemiah rallied the people to strengthen the vision, reminded them that God was in them, to strengthen their hands. So when it came time for this project to be complete, and when it comes time for this project to be complete, in Carol Stream, we all pitched in together. But there's far more to do.
Before I get to that, I want to show you what it looked like in here previously and what you see today. Take a look at this video.
[00:30:29] Speaker D: Sam.
Rejoice in the Lord now and always Sing it again we rejoice Delight in the love he has shown us Gratefully Lift up your voice his gentleness among us Will join our hearts with grace we gather in his goodness A family of grace with each breath please give in Praise the Lord in these times we live in we will praise the Lord throughout every season I am sure we are every reason Praise the Lord Rejoice and be anxious for nothing Praying for all that you need Come with song of thanksgiving and lay your request at his feet his peace will fall upon us to guard our hearts and minds In Christ who reigns eternal shepherd of our lives with his bread we praise the Lord in these times we live we will praise the Lord to about every season I am sure the every reason to praise the Lord oh, we praise the Lord we choose voice in the Lord now and always tell of the good he has done Worship the Lord to remember all of the joy yet to come Though that burns within us the dark cannot destroy the praise that's never ending we sing every rejoice with each breath he's given Praise the Lord in these times we live we will praise the Lord throughout every season I am sure we have every reason to praise the Lord we have every reason to raise the Lord.
[00:34:17] Speaker A: Oh.
[00:34:18] Speaker D: We praise you Rejoice and be anxious for nothing Praying for all that you need Come with song of thanksgiving and lay your request at speed his peace will fall upon us to guard our hearts and minds In Christ who reigns eternal shepherd our lives with his bread we praise be let praise the Lord in these times we live in we will praise the Lord throughout every season I am sure we have reason to praise the Lord oh, we praise the Lord Rejoice in the Lord now and always tell of the good he has done Worship the Lord to remember all of the joy yet to come Though that burns within us the dark cannot destroy the praise that's never ending we sing and rejoice with each breath he's given Praise the Lord in these times we win we will praise the Lord the Lord throughout every season I am sure we have every reason to praise the Lord we have reason to praise the Lord oh, we praise you with these breath we praise the Lord in these times we live in we will praise the Lord throughout every season Reason I sure we have every reason to praise the Lord oh, we praise the Lord Praise the Lord Praise the Lord.
[00:37:38] Speaker A: It'S testimony to all the people that serve so well at this church. Let me read for you the verse one more time, and I want to wrap this up with an encouragement for what we're going to do next.
Nehemiah 2:18 finishes with these words. I told them the hand of the God that had Bond me for good.
And also the words of the king spoken to me. And they said, let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands, which we already talked about. They strengthened their hands for the good work.
It's interesting that the real work actually starts now. It wasn't about building a wall. The wall represented their new opportunities to become a nation again. The wall represented new opportunities to be distinct from the nations around them. This wall represented new opportunities to worship as a people and and be the people who God called them to be.
The good work ahead wasn't just bricks and beams and mortar. It was restoring identity and safety and the worship of God's people. This was their ministry in action. They didn't do the wall because that was the project, but it led them to be the people that God had called them to be. And the key for us is it's never about building a space.
A church should never be about building a space. To have a more comfortable church service, a church building needs to be about utilizing a bigger tool to do the work of the gospel.
The physical space may now be a reality, but this building represents something bigger than that. It represents our ability to get the gospel out to more families, to serve more families, to love more families, to be more welcoming with God's love. In fact, the word gospel means good news.
This is the thing that God wants us to do. And if there's anything that the world needs right now, it would be good news, wouldn't you say? This is our opportunity to now have this larger tool, this 247 tool, so that we can celebrate and we can bring good news to more people. In fact, listen, we are God's building project.
Listen to this verse in First Corinthians 3, 9. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building. Don't you love that God is doing something in you so that you can be with stronger hands, with a deeper faith, with more love for the community, with a deeper heart for service. You can be used by God to do more things tomorrow than you've done so far in your life.
He wants to do more with our lives.
Some of your names are under this floor. I don't know if you caught that, but one of our Saturdays we came and we put names of people that we've been praying for. All on this floor before the carpet went down.
Verses. We've covered this floor with verses are our blessings to people who walk through the door. This is because we believe that when you stand on God's Truth, you will be far more stable than if you are caught in the lies of the evil one. In the culture that ever changes around us, we want to put down not only your names and not only Bible verses, people we're praying for and verses that we stand on, but we also wrote down prayers for our community.
This floor is full of prayers of people who you sit with now who've been praying for you.
The real good work begins now. And this is what Jesus would want us to do. And here's just a list of how we can use this tool, this new building, to do greater things than we've done so far. We want to welcome the broken who wander in, unsure if anyone sees them at all. We want to teach children about a Jesus who loves them, who unconditionally. We want to serve our community in practical and sacrificial ways. We want to carry hope to our neighbors pummeled by life, who have yet to realize that they are wanted in God's family.
We want to love people in the places where they are, no matter where they are, no matter what difficult circumstances they may be in, even in this confusing and changing world. What we've built here is a platform to. For grace to overflow, a beacon for the weary and a launchpad for transformation.
And so I would finish up with these few things. These are what we finish with. We say, okay, so what? Now that we've spoken about God's word and his truth, so what do we do now? Number one, I would encourage you to commit your hands to the mission that God has for you.
You've grown and now you're ready.
God would not have opened these doors unless he wants us to use them.
And he has opened numerous doors miraculously for us to be here. And I believe that God wants us to use this place more for his glory. So what is your part to play in this ministry? I would suggest that you join a ministry team.
You may think that the pastor runs the show. That is not how it is. In our church, we have ministry directors who serve in all these different ministries. And you can get involved in all kinds of ministries, from greeting people at the front door to bringing food into the refrigerator that never falls, it never ends, having food in it, working with our sound crew, we have people in the nursery. If you love working with children, if you want to come in and help us do some physical things around here, there's still some jobs that need to be done. There are all kinds of things to do. And if you would like to be a part of A community that appreciates and will love on you and welcome you in. You are more than welcome to join a ministry team. Help a neighbor in need, give to a mission that we're pursuing here. We have several missions that we support in our community and around the world. We would encourage you to be a part of that. Invite somebody to church. Just invite them in. You have no idea how many people would just love to have a community that they would just love on them, even for a couple hours a week.
This is a great blessing that we often take for granted. Invite somebody to church. Church now. The people in Jerusalem, in Nehemiah's day, they had a chance to strengthen their hands for the good work. And we do that now, too.
Not just build something impressive, but we're looking to build something eternal.
And number two, I would encourage you to bring one more hand with you to the good work that God wants to do through you. Remember, God can use any willing heart or any willing hand.
Did you notice in a lot of those pictures that we had children painting the walls and we had children knocking down walls? And our vision has always been we want to make families, give families projects together that make them stronger as families. Every person, no matter how young or how old, has something that they can contribute to the work that God is doing.
So my question that I would ask you is, who's somebody that I can bring along into faith, into family, or even into service?
Will you use your hands for healing, hope and holiness? The building is ready. Will you join us in this mission? And I hope that you will. If you're a guest with us from another church, it's awesome to have you here, you should stay at that church. But if you're looking for a place where you would like to find community and family in a healthy, in a hopeful place that will give you love and acceptance and hope from. From week to week, we would invite you to be a part of what we're doing here in Village Church East. We're going to finish our service in a very special way. There are four elders of our church. I'm one of them in this church that kind of offer the vision to the church, kind of fill the role that Nehemiah did in the Old Testament. And I'm going to ask those elders if you would join me up here. And we want to spend a moment in prayer dedicating this place to the Lord and to the good work that he has called us to do here in Carol's Stream. Even better than we've done it so far. So, elders, would you make your way up here?
Great.
All right, guys, if you haven't met these guys yet, this is John. I'm Craig. This is Darren and Brent, and I get the privilege of serving with these incredible gentlemen.
In scripture, the Bible gives us qualifications for an elder, those who lead the church. And these men are of incredible character and love. They pray for you often.
That is our main responsibility, to pray and serve you. And I love serving with them because it makes my hands stronger. And so I've asked two of them if they would mind closing us in prayer. So, John and Darren, would you close us in prayer?
[00:46:13] Speaker E: Lord, your provision that you have given us here with this new location and all the work that went into it is something that even now we can look back at and see is all originating from you, all brought to us as a gift from you. And, Father, we come before you this morning with humble hearts and just hearts of gratefulness and that we would have never conceived of anything like this. And, Lord, we just think back to the eight years of looking and trying to understand what you would have us do and where we should be and what location we should be in. And, Father, we.
We saw through that time many doors open and many doors closed. But, Lord, we think that.
Well, Lord, we know that this is what you ultimately had in mind for us.
And, Father, we are so thankful that you have given us the opportunity to have this grand opening here. And, Father, just with hearts of gratitude and great anticipation, Lord, we think about how you have plans for us that will start now and go, as Pastor Craig said, into eternity. So, Father, we just ask a special anointing upon this space and all the individuals involved in getting us here and everybody who participated, whether it be through giving, through work, or through prayer, whatever it may be. Father, we could not have gotten this far without the grateful, grateful hearts of the servants who've participated in this project. And, Lord, we are so thankful for that. So this morning, we just ask that we could dedicate this facility to you, to your name, Father, May it be a place where the lost may find salvation, Father, where the weary may find rest. And, Father, where your name can be lifted up each and every time that we gather here. And, Lord, just as we go forward from this, we know that as your word tells us, your house is built without human hands. This is a gift from you, and we are so appreciative of that. And we are just amazed at just how our folks have come around and participated and just been such a vital and important part of getting us to where we are. So, Father, just in ways that words cannot even describe, we come here this morning with grateful hearts and with just an excitement about how you will work through this congregation. And, Father, how the Holy Spirit can just resonate through the walls of our space here. And, Father, that we may serve you. And Lord, we know that you have plans for us here in the Carroll Stream area. And, Lord, we look forward to getting out further into the community and reaching them with your word and your promises through Christ.
Father, thank you so much for this morning.
[00:49:41] Speaker C: God of heaven and earth, we thank and praise you for sending your one and only son, Jesus, who died for our sins and rose again, and for whom we give all the honor and glory for what has been done here. We take no credit for it and give it back to you, Lord.
And we thank you because you are the God of Carol's dream as well. And we trust that. That what has begun here will resonate throughout this community, that this will be a better place because of the work that's being done here.
And that it will resonate even for generations to come, that through the faithfulness of the people who put their hands to the good work, that lives will be changed, that people will find hope and healing and restoration and peace and comfort, that Carol Stream will be a new place. And this church will be like a city on the hill and a place where people know they can go to find that hope and healing.
And God, so we ask that in your great mercy and love, would you fill this with your spirit, fill it with your people, and fill it with your love and your word that the gospel may be proclaimed and that you may receive all the honor and glory from it.
God, I thank you so much for everyone who's put their hands to this good work.
So many names and so many people. God, you know each and every one of them. And I thank you, Lord, because you have shown your faithfulness to us. Time and again, we have been amazed at what you have done here. Surely, God, it was because of you.
And so, God, as we start things here, may we not see this as the end? Yes, we've completed this building, but, God, the work is now just getting started. And so we look forward to whatever that next step is and all the next steps after that and all the great things you have in store.
And so, God, as you have used us up to this point, would you continue to do so in the next eight years, in the next 80 years, and however long, God, until you come again in glory?
And so, God, hear our prayer. Today and bless everyone who's here. And we thank you Lord, for this precious time and this gift of a building.
In Jesus name, amen.
